If he doesn't back himself to play in that position then I'm glad he's chosen not to join. The last thing we need is a player with no heart.

Pretty disappointed tbh. he was the most exciting that looked likely to come in. Wouldn't play centre midfield though for us. 

Left it late. Will there be a suitable alternative? 

Oxlaide Chamberlain clearly has an inflated view of his abilities...he's not a CM and if he thinks he can break into Liverpool's CM group then good luck son...

I'm not unhappy if he doesn't want to come. What annoys me is that we have let Boga go out on loan this week and so overall the squad is weakened again. 

Somebody is not doing a great job at Chelsea with transfers and loans. 

So my prediction may yet come through regarding us not signing anyone and then blaming other factors, the board is really disappointing and my expectations of them gets lower and lower.

After thinking about it more I really think he had a last minute change of heart and whilst that may make us look stupid the board can't help an 11th hour u-turn by a player. The frustration that we loaned Boga out I can understand but I don't think it's fair to solely blame the board for this. 

The timing of this has been crucial imo. Had we had approached him a month ago, before we started bidding for drinkwater and Barkley, maybe he would've fancied himself getting an opportunity at some point in centre midfield. He is now in England duty and no doubt Henderson and clyne have been in his ear, maybe even got him to speak to klopp. 

8 minutes ago, carrickblue said:

I'm not unhappy if he doesn't want to come. What annoys me is that we have let Boga go out on loan this week and so overall the squad is weakened again. 

Somebody is not doing a great job at Chelsea with transfers and loans. 

I agree that we have left it too late again, but if we want to pay over the odds for mediocre players then I am sure there are quite a few out there that would love to join a club like Chelsea.

I must admit I am happy about this outcome. I am as frustrated as anyone else about the lack of activity but I really want us to be signing exciting individuals that makes everyone sit up and take notice.

The Danny Drinkwater situation also leaves me in two minds. On the one hand I want him to grown into the next Lampard. How great that would be. But then last season he was woeful (as was most of his teammates) and one dimensional.

I know we want to increase this home grown number but I just don't see a great deal of quality in many British players at the moment. Evans to Man City. Seriously!! I would much prefer to see Conte use his undoubted contacts from his previous roles and bring in a major foreign talent. If that's the best out there I don't see why we should pigeon hole ourselves to inferior homegrown players.

Costa and £50m to PSG for Verratti. That would grab the headlines.

 

he didn't want to come here, that's fair enough. he wouldn't be first choice and he knows this. i am not disappointed, but we need those hg quotas. 

He knows he wouldn't get near our cm. He can't even get in arsenals. I really wanted him, so gutted, but as a wing back! If he won't be happy like Moses playing wing back for the champions then f**k him tbh.

1 minute ago, big blue said:

The timing of this has been crucial imo. Had we had approached him a month ago, before we started bidding for drinkwater and Barkley, maybe he would've fancied himself getting an opportunity at some point in centre midfield. He is now in England duty and no doubt Henderson and clyne have been in his ear, maybe even got him to speak to klopp. 

No way is this player getting in ahead of Emre Can. Henderson is their captain and if Coutinho stays AOC has no chance. If Coutinho is sold they have a £100m to go and buy a proper attacking midfielder. But hey I think this is bullet dodged for us so for me he is welcome to the Scouse bench. 

32 minutes ago, coombsie said:

I agree that we do need 4 "TOP CLASS" players, but Oxlade Camberlain, Danny Drinkwater, Jamie Vardy, Fernando Llorente,???? REALLY ????

We need 4 players never mind TOP CLASS players

for me if we bring in 3 (maybe 4) players who are good enough, we have the january window to reinforce again, obviously that's hoping we can go until then with few injuries. 

Elemano better get his spreadsheet out and see who's next on the list. 

I think if we can get Barkley, Llorente and Drinkwater then yeah, that will be decent and enough to see us through to January. 

1 minute ago, WhiteWall said:

No way is this player getting in ahead of Emre Can. Henderson is their captain and if Coutinho stays AOC has no chance. If Coutinho is sold they have a £100m to go and buy a proper attacking midfielder. But hey I think this is bullet dodged for us so for me he is welcome to the Scouse bench. 

I agree he isn't getting ahead of those 3 or lallana. But he have even less chance to play ahead of kante bakayoko fabregas and potentially drinkwater and Barkley. Especially if he has managed to push ahead of moses. 

I can't agree we have dodged a bullet. Even if you doubt his ability, you can't argue that he would've been an able homegrown backup in multiple positions, and at an age where he will likely improve aswell. 

Oh well. He's sh*t anyway. A brainless Kalou is the last thing this club needs 

2 minutes ago, Adamrb said:

He knows he wouldn't get near our cm. He can't even get in arsenals. I really wanted him, so gutted, but as a wing back! If he won't be happy like Moses playing wing back for the champions then f**k him tbh.

We do need RWB cover but when you look at his statistics (over a prolonged period) he offers very little. Seriously I believe that Azpi is a better wing back than AOC and when do you ever see or hear Azpi sulking and making comments in the press.

There is a group of Arsenal kids( (not kids anymore) that have just not progressed and it's all well and good blaming Wenger but let's be honest, AOC, Walcott, Welbeck, Ramsey, Wilshere, Gibbs, none of these players have outgrown the club and warrant moving up. They are b!tching and blaming the manager for their lack of game time and stagnation but they must surely accept a level of responsibility for they poor accuracy of passing, tackling, energy, crosses, shots, goals. How can the basic fundamentals be totally down to the manager.

Truly we have released or sold better home grown talent than the above group at Arsenal.

Just now, Theafonis said:

Oh well. He's sh*t anyway. A brainless Kalou is the last thing this club needs 

Oy!!! Leave off mate. 

Ain't letting you talk about Kalou like that

Cult hero!!!

IF it's true, and the skysports article says "according to sources" so who the f**k knows, then it's probably for the best. I really can't see him getting many opportunities in CM, even less so if we were to sign Drinkwater.

On another note, I find all this hostility towards the board (and Marina Granovskaia specifically) to be a bit stupid. We have signed four good players in good time and there is still a couple of days left, during which a lot of deals will be forced through. If our squad needs strengthening it's because we lost too many players either permanently or on loan. I've no idea what went on with Matic, but Challobah's move was entirely understandable and it would have been wrong of us to hinder his career by forcing him to stay as a backup player. We may end up regretting the loan deals for RLC and Aina, both players in positions we now want to strengthen, but I wonder who's decisions they were?

Just seen on Twitter that Liverpool will only sign the Ox or Lemar, not both. Currently they are in advanced talks with Lemar. 

Leaves Ox in no mans land if he's rejected us. 

He is going to need to drop quite a few levels if he wants to be a starting centre midfielder. 

Naby Keita has signed for Liverpool but will arrive next season. Where would Ox put himself there?

In fact he could take a page out of the likes of Victor's book and realise that sometimes when your career is going sideways you need to recreate yourself, put your head down and work!

On 25/08/2017 at 17:24, coco said:

Bit of luck up the M6.

The Express missed my leak then.